after ten not-so-relaxing weeks, i started back to work today. the turkey must have heard the plan so mr sleeps-8-hour-nights decided to be awake every 30 minutes all last night. i think it was the worse night yet (aside from the post-shots campouts). other than being insanely tired and not being able to take a nap, i think the day worked out okay. i’m still not sure how well all this will work as his wake time increases but we’re just doing a day at a time right now. i guess between the sleep-deprivation and the familiarity of the work routine, i got off a call today and caught myself saying that it’s been a few days since my dad called. i don’t think he’s gone more than three days between calls this whole year and he had a habit of calling in the middle of the day while i was in the middle of something at work or on a work call. odd that that sent me into a crying fit but not the email from his wife a little later saying that she had picked up his ashes.

hubby had to leave town yesterday to take all the guest room furniture up to his parents’ house. tonight, sunny and I got together for a nice little girls night out dinner. it was great to get out and just talk and hang out for a while. we talked about her busy business and her volunteer work at a local animal rescue. I told her about my exciting call yesterday where it sounds like I am going to get the opportunity to transition out of my current position, back into a tech writing position that I’ve been chasing for years. we sat at the restaurant and talked for over two hours about all kinds of nonsense. sometimes it’s nice to just get out and catch up with a good friend

when I told my boss I was pregnant, she insisted that we had to come into the office sometime before the baby was born so we agreed that I would do that on my trip down for my nephew’s graduation. yesterday, we got up super early and put on some office-appropriate clothes (thank goodness for still having so many clothes I can still fit into!) and fought traffic for the commute into the office. I got to meet several coworkers who I’ve emailed with and even spoken with for a couple years but never seen face to face. I had expected my boss to give us a nice congratulations card and probably even a little gift card or something but I was blown away by the lovely surprise shower/luncheon that the whole group put together. people we had never even met before had come together to give our baby cute little gifts and it was just so very nice. we’re so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives. I felt bad for my other remote co-workers who had to cover for me getting almost no work done all day but it was so nice.

“my boss asked me to come into the office while we were in town and surprised us with a lovely shower/luncheon. what a great group of coworkers we have!!!”

for ten years, the only dreams that i have had about the ramada have been flashbacks… vivid nocturnal memories of the nightmare of being robbed, pepper-sprayed, and beaten with a gun. most of the time, the dream was true to the reality. occasionally, the dream was far worse, preying on my gratitude for knowing how much worse that night could have been. over the years, i dream less and less about it. i think less and less about it.

twice in the last month, i have dreamt about going back to work at the ramada. in these dreams, i am fully aware of that night… and yet i am perfectly happy to be back there working again.

in case you missed my string of plurks last night/this morning, we were hit with a youthful impulse last night: we left the house at about a quarter of midnight and headed out to see a band. on a school work night! i felt like the old rebellious kid sneaking out at night (not that i ever did that and if you’re a minor reading this rant, you should absolutely not sneak out of your parents home!). truly, it did wonders for ameliorating my mood after my lousy run.

you’ll recall that running buddy, scooter, and his wife, sunny, are friends with an atlanta band called the b@$t@rd suns and give them a place to crash when they’re playing in town. this time, instead of driving an hour to see them, they were playing right down the street – we couldn’t not go.

the venue was much better. it was roomier and far less smoky. i still reeked when we left but nothing like that last place where i had to wash our clothes, febreeze them, and wash them again to get the smoke out. it may just be increased familiarity with the music but i really enjoyed the band more this time too. they have a great sound to them that is just plain fun. they finished their set a little after 01:00 and scooter talked us into going back to his house to hang out and grill burgers with them and the band (and his parents who flew in from CA last night to visit – talk about a full house).

we had a great time hanging out with everyone and chowing down on the unhealthy snack foods that sunny went way overboard with. when the drummer broke out his toothbrush around 03:30 and started making up the futon, we figured it was time to depart. we were home, showered, and in bed shortly after 04:00 which left almost two and a half hours to sleep before the alarm sounded.

i had considered not going to sleep at all, thinking that the two hours would just make getting up that much harder but i actually woke up feeling fairly refreshed. all day i’ve been waiting for the inevitable crash but i’ve felt better than i have all week. i guess if i’m going to suffer from insomnia anyhow, i might as well be out doing something fun while not sleeping. i managed to grab a fifteen minute nap on my lunch break and i got about an hour after work but, really, i’m not hurting. crazy, that. i think we’re going out again tonight so the true test will be how long i can make it before crashing then.

i’ve actually been busier this week, off the phones, than i was on them. not complaining though because i will take busy over answering phones any day! i’m still having to make a good bit of customer contact but that will change over time as the people answering the phones learn the type of information to gather before escalating issues to me. i’m so excited to be phoneless. i swore i would never be on the phones. i BEGGED not to be on the phones. my job is once again tolerable. around the home, we did a bunch of shopping over the weekend. bought the futon mattress, ordered the sheets (remember that thing about nothing being easy in this place? the sheets i wanted that i have seen countless times in the store are no longer being carried in the store. we bought the one set they had, went to the other store to get another set and were denied. so i’ve returned the one we bought and ordered both sets online), and bought a storage box for the balcony which is very helpful. sunday, i painted the bathroom. it looks fabulous. i’m letting it dry a few days and this weekend i’ll tape it up and add the stripe i want and it should be complete and ready to reassemble. we also bought some cabinet hardware which hubby has started installing. it’s amazing how a little knob and drawer pull can make the plain, ugly, white cabinets look so much nicer.

the only thing more aggravating than having to work is not being able to. yesterday was one of those days. on the bright side, i wasn’t on the phones (have i mentioned how much i abhor the phones?!) because my phone software was playing dead all day. unfortunately, instead of enjoying the respite from the phones, i was stressed and frustrated all day trying to troubleshoot my computer and software. after working almost all night on it, i finally uninstalled and reinstalled just about every program i use for work and finally got my phones working again. whoo. hoo. clearly, no fun visiting last night. sunday was nice though. i went to church with my sissy’s family to see the kids do their special mom’s day celebration. i spent the afternoon with jenny and did end up ordering my dress. i was then invited to my cousin’s for dinner and spent the night having quality time with her. a good, busy day to distract me from thoughts of extreme sadness. and tonight i’m getting together with jenny and some of her friends for a free dinner. yummy!

i’ve begun posting my resume so we’ll see what happens. it’s going to be such a shame to leave a group i love so much. not to mention that i am so close to getting three weeks of vacation. yes, i am pretty bummed about the whole thing, thankyouverymuch. not much else going on today. still avoiding masking which is also a shame since i would like to paint. probably going to go for a nice long sunset walk with my hubby in a bit. and how about that mii creating?

it has been a simply gorgeous week here at the beach. all of the windows/doors have been open since sunday… in mid-april… in florida!!! it is absolutely fabulous! and the water is crystal clear. i’ve been enjoying all of this on my own as my hubby left me tuesday morning. he had a business gig for a couple of days and then went last night to visit his folks for a couple of days (yay! our wii is coming home!). so i expect he’ll be home saturday sometime. which i guess means that we won’t be going to orlando this weekend. and bossman still hasn’t given hubby a clear date for his next big trip which is supposed to be in the next couple of weeks but heaven knows when so we can’t very well schedule a visit to orlando. in other news, i’m very dismayed by the fact that not only can i not sleep at night (nothing new there) but i have lost my ability to nap. i can not tell you the last time i tried to take a nap and actually fell asleep. i’m exhausted, ya’ll. i guess that’s why the bathroom is not painted yet and i really, really want it painted.

the alarm woke me up from a horrible work-related dream this morning. i woke up sobbing to myself about how i was trying and just couldn’t make it work. not a great way to start the day and left me tired the rest of the day (no, i couldn’t really tell you how that’s different from any other day that i wake up breathing). the day itself wasn’t terrible and i managed to do just a little bit of cleaning during lunch and after work. not near what i had planned to have done this week but, considering how crummy i was feeling at the beginning of the week, i’ll take it. i have no idea yet when to expect my hubby to be home tomorrow so there’s a chance i might be able to get more cleaning out of the way before he gets home. not only do i not like to “waste” my weekend on cleaning but it’s really just not a realistic goal. weekends are spent having fun or holding down the couch. that’s the reality of it and i’m fine with that. i imagine since the resurrection bunny ruined our shopping trip last weekend, we’ll be going out to make another effort at blowing copious amounts of money this weekend. gotta support the economy right? afterall, i need to spend my hard-earned money bailing out all of the irresponsible idiots in the country who got us into this mess.